Sébastien-Roch Nicolas Quotes
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There some trifles well habited, as there are some fools well clothed.
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Scandal is an importunate wasp, against which we must make no movement unless we are quite sure that we can kill it; otherwise it will return to the attack more furious than ever.
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Sometimes apparent resemblance of character will bring two men together and for a certain time unite them. But their mistake gradually becomes evident, and they are astonished to find themselves not only far apart, but even repelled, in some sort, at all their points of contact.
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Most of those who make collections of verse or epigram are like men eating cherries or oysters: they choose out the best at first, and end by eating all.
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At the sight of what goes on in the world, the most misanthropic of men must end by being amused, and Heraclitus must die laughing.
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Whoever is not a misanthrope at forty can never have loved mankind.
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Society would be a charming affair if we were only interested in one another.
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Women bestow on friendship only what they borrow from love.
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Someone has said that to plagiarise from the ancients is to play the pirate beyond the Equator, but that to steal from the moderns is to pick pockets at street corners.
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In love, everything is true, everything is false; it is the one subject on which one cannot express an absurdity.
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There are two things that one must get used to or one will find life unendurable: the damages of time and injustices of men.
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One must not hope to be more than one can be.
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It is passion that makes man live; wisdom makes one only last.
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Life is a malady in which sleep soothes us every sixteen hours; it is a palliation; death is the remedy.
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All passions are exaggerated, otherwise they would not be passions.
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The person is always happy who is in the presence of something they cannot know in full. A person as advanced far in the study of morals who has mastered the difference between pride and vanity.
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Wicked people sometimes perform good actions. I suppose they wish to see if this gives as great a feeling of pleasure as the virtuous claim for it.
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Though we best know and cannot deny our imperfections, it is not for us to lose our self-reliance and true manhood.
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Running a house should be left to innkeepers.
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Public opinion reigns in society because stupidity reigns amongst the stupid.
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It is inconceivable how much wit it requires to avoid being ridiculous.
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It is commonly supposed that the art of pleasing is a wonderful aid in the pursuit of fortune; but the art of being bored is infinitely more successful.
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In great matters, men behave as they are expected to; in little ones, as they would naturally
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Vain is equivalent to empty; thus vanity is so miserable a thing, that one cannot give it a worse name than its own. It proclaims itself for what it is.